Why are some MLB teams named after states, not cities?

[Deadpool]

^ I once drove past an event in Montana with a big sign that said, "Testicle Festival". Me, being a young man from a suburb of NYC, figured it was a big gay orgy weekend.

Someone a little more hip to the cowboy jive, explained it had to do with emasculated bulls, and consuming the uh...by-products of castration.

I'm not sure which scenario had me more concerned.

Being a young man from NYC and who has lived in BK, I have to say that the Bull one concerns me the most. So thats how the midwest gets down in their free time. Somebody should give them something to do so they can leave Bulls alone. Maybe I`ll buy some sudou puzzles and ship them over there.

 

[Geoff]

And in some instances, just named that way because doing it the other way sounded stupid...

In the case of the Indianapolis Colts, they stupidly went with the stupid-sounding name.

I mean, face it. "Indiana Colts" sounds much cooler. It has that "Indiana Jones" ring to it. Not to mention the fact that the franchise really could have benefitted from a statewide fanbase early on. As it happened, no one outside of the Indianapolis area became a Colts fan until around the mid-'90s. The northern part of the state was all Bears fans (and still is, to some extent); the southern part was all Bengals fans.

And, weren't the Lakers the Minneapolis Lakers, before they moved to a place with no lakes to speak of?

Yep. And the Utah Jazz were originally in New Orleans, before they moved to a place with no jazz to speak of.

 

[SmoothieX]

I mean, face it. "Indiana Colts" sounds much cooler. It has that "Indiana Jones" ring to it. Not to mention the fact that the franchise really could have benefitted from a statewide fanbase early on.

They coulda called the team the Indiana Joneses. After all, Buffalo calls their team the Bills.